How To Rock the Lost Collection of One Shots
by xxWonderstruckxx
Summary: These are a series of one shots long forgotten and finally worked on and completed. Zevie, Kavin, Gelson.
1. Masquerade: Part 1

**A/N: Hey guys! It's been about a year since I've posted anything new, and probably 3 years since I've posted a new How To Rock story. Since the popularity of How To Rock stories have diminished, I feel like the last thing I can give to all you dedicated Rockers is a few one shots of How To Rock I've long forgotten. Enjoy!**

 **Masquerade**

I'm not much for school dances, and if I go it's in attempt to whisk a single lady off her feet, which usually ended in disasters, but this time around I was persuaded to go on the account that I would be given the perfect opportunity.

I sat on a high chair, tuning my ukulele, when Nelson and Kevin came barging in. In an attempt to finish, I ignored their presence and continued strumming, but their voices bounced on every wall and corner. Frustrated and irritated, I gave up tuning and set aside my ukulele to hear what they had to say.

"Okay, but Grace is a Perf. We don't associate with Perfs!" Kevin argued, plopping down on the couch and setting his feet on top of the growing pile of empty pizza boxes.

"We already went through this a few months ago! I like Grace and that doesn't change anything about how I feel about the band or you guys," Nelson defended himself.

I took it as my cue to enter the conversation. "I'm so confused. What are you guys arguing about?"

Kevin let out an exasperated sigh and said, "Haven't you been listening? Nelson wants to ask Grace out to the Masquerade Ball tomorrow night."

"But Kevin doesn't want me to go with Grace because we were supposed to have a boys' night out tomorrow night," Nelson added.

They kept going on and on, explaining every detail of their senseless argument. Meanwhile, I listened while rubbing my temple. At some point, they let me voice my opinion on the matter. I took a seat at the other chair before giving them my verdict.

"Kevin, let Nelson go this time. You can always do boys' night out tomorrow." Kevin and Nelson began to start another argument, but I cut them before they could breathe a word. "I'm not finished. Nelson, you _have_ to ask Grace this time. You can't leave Kevin hanging after all of this."

Though Nelson was the one who came up with the idea minutes ago, he looked as if he wanted to shrivel in a corner and never come out of the band room again. Kevin noticed and proceeded to tease him about being all talk. Nelson turned bright red and turned away trying to brush off Kevin's words like they were merely dust on his shirt.

Kevin paused for a moment, looking as if he was precociously debating on an important idea. Confusion crossed Nelson's face as he took a seat across from me and waited for Kevin to say something. I attempted to speak up but the silence was somewhat comforting after all of the loud disputes.

After a brief contemplation, Kevin shouted, "I have an idea!" We all looked at Kevin, wanting to know his solution to the problem. "Let's have a little challenge."

Our ears perked up at his words. "Normal challenge rules?" I asked.

"Yeah, you guys remember don't you? We each have to wager something of equal quantity. Loser has to do what the winner says. Tie breaker is decided by a neutral party."

My lips curved into a smirk as I replied, "Okay, so what are we betting today?"

Kevin took on my smirk and glared at Nelson. Nelson squirmed in his seat and looked away from Kevin towards the ceiling.

"I challenge Nelson to ask Grace to the dance."

Nelson cursed under his breath. "And what about you guys?"

Now it was my turn to squirm in my seat as Kevin and Nelson turned to me. "Zander has to make his move with Stevie."

I abruptly stood up from my seat and protested. I shouldn't feel this uncomfortable with pulling all the stops on a lady, but when it comes to Stevie, my mind doesn't know where to start.

I could imagine what I would do and how I would terribly fail. Stevie would pull the "just friends" card to avoid getting herself in another relationship, just like she had to the two other guys who had asked her to the dance. And if I tried to slip my way into her heart on the night of the dance, she would take her bass and crush me.

Even though I had my greatest fears replaying on my mind, I couldn't help but think of what _could_ happen if she opened her heart up to me. I could finally, just finally, surpass the friend-zone box she's been shoving me in. Maybe she'd let me hold her close as we dance. Maybe she'd let me…

"Zander, snap out of it. The look on your face proves why you need to make your move with Stevie. It's been a year and you've barely scratched the surface of being more than friends," Kevin exclaimed.

"Man, but what if she friend-zones me like she did with Andy and Justin?"

"Then you upheld your end of the challenge and we'll hook you up with someone else."

"Before we get ahead of ourselves, who is Kevin going to do?" Nelson asked.

"Who else? Kevin has to ask the one and only Kacey Simons."

Kevin gave me a chilly glare before replying, "Fine then, fair wager. Let the games begin!"


	2. Masquerade: Part 2

**A/N: Thanks to any dedicated Zevians who still read Zevie fanfics! Here's the next part to my one shot. Enjoy!**

 **Masquerade (Part 2)**

I walked into the ballroom full of masked men in tuxes and masked women in glamorous dresses. A Katy Perry song blasted the speakers and everyone was dancing to the beat. If not dancing, people were eating the loads of free food or coolly leaning against a wall, chatting with friends or dates. On the stage was a DJ, who bobbed his head to the beat while turning the turn tables and staring at his laptop screen.

"Are you guys ready to party?" The DJ yelled out into the microphone while transitioning to another song. Everyone cheered while continuing to dance to the next song.

Since everyone was encouraged to wear a mask, it was hard to find anyone recognizable. Instead of awkwardly standing and staring at the people on the dance floor, I made my way to the food table and grabbed a cup of punch. While taking a sip, I slipped out my phone and texted Kevin, asking where he and Nelson were.

An agonizing minute later, he responded, telling me to meet him at the front of the stage with Nelson. Another text popped up with Kevin telling me that Kacey and Stevie went in the crowd to dance. _Great, this gives me more time to stall_.

I couldn't find a way around the crowd of dancing figures, so I finished off my punch and squished through people towards the stage. It was a real pain; I had to feel the drenched sweat of those who danced too hard this early on in the dance and smell the chokingly strong amount of cologne and perfume mix. People kept giving me deathly stares as if I were ruining the night by pushing past them and occasionally stepping on some feet.

I finally found Kevin and Nelson exactly where they told me they would be. They were both dressed in black tuxes and wearing plain, white masks. The masks stopped at their noses, leaving their lips and below uncovered.

Kevin saw me approached and exclaimed, "Finally, you made it bro!" He snatched my empty punch bowl and gave it to Nelson to throw away. "You won't be needing that."

"Before we get into my part of the bet," I began, "what about your part?"

"I asked Kacey in Biology class, and of course she turned me down a little harshly," Kevin replied, shrugging off the rejection. We all gave him an apologetic look, but he just smiled and said, "She's just playing hard to get. I see through you, Kacey Simons."

"Anyways, how about you Nelson?" I asked.

Nelson gave a hesitant pause and Kevin and I already knew what went down. "If you count walking up to her and asking her a question related to the dance, then I succeeded."

Kevin and I let out a huge sigh and I patted Nelson on the back. Kevin started giving Nelson a decent pep talk, something including a metaphor about apples and girls. I, on the other hand, felt my gaze drop towards the dancing masked people. I tried to search for Stevie, but with no prior information about her dress and mask, it made her impossible to find.

"Earth to Zander…" I immediately returned to the present occurrences. "Zander, you've been pretty quiet tonight," Kevin said. Their lips formed a mischievous Cheshire smirk, their thoughts readable from that one smile. I knew I was going to have to do it at some point tonight.

"I think it's time you find Stevie," Nelson motioned to the crowd of masked people.

I shuffled in place and put my hands in my pockets before saying, "Is it too late to back out?"

"I thought you were the type of guy who won't back down in bet," Kevin said, "Unless you're too chicken about it." Kevin and Nelson started to make chicken noises while doing the chicken dance. My mind kept disagreeing with each other. To stop their embarrassment, I reluctantly tossed away my idea of giving up.

I was running low on pathetic excuses to stall out the bet, so I resorted to my lousy questions. "How would I even find Stevie? I don't know what dress or mask she's wearing or how her hair is done. I can't even see anyone in this dimmed room!"

This time, it was Kevin and Nelson's time to give me the comforting pat on the back and the pep talk. Nelson explained to me how to identify Stevie from the crowd. _Red dress, red lips, black heels, hair let down, a little thunderbolt on the forehead of the mask, inspired by Harry Potter._

They gave me a friendly shove into the crowd and I was suddenly immersed in the sweat and stench of dancing men and women. _I guess I have no other choice_ , I thought.

I walked around the ballroom, trying to find Stevie. _Why did this have to be a masquerade ball_ , I thought. Everywhere I turned, I saw masks and masks and more masks, all looking identical.

"Hey y'all, it's time for the Masquerade Magic, brought to you by the dance team. Everyone grab a partner and follow the dance!" I felt my arm being yanked by a random girl in a pink floral dress. The crowd parted in the center, and the girl in the floral dress and I walked into the center. A dubstep song played and the floral girl and the other dance team members ignited the dance.

"Just watch me," said the girl as she began to dance. I followed her moves, picking up the dance quicker than the others, and began to dance alongside her. A few steps to the left, twirl the girl. A few steps to the right, lift the girl into the air and slowly spin. Each move fell into place with the beat. Midway through the song, everyone was participating in the dance.

"Let's switch it up a bit. Ladies choice! Ladies, move to your right and grab someone to dance with." The masked women moved to the next person to the right. Another girl came up to me in a lacey red dress and grabbed my hands for the dance. I watched her black high heels click on the floor while she led me in the dance. She stumbled on a few of the moves, but it didn't seem to faze her at all.

I continued to watch her struggle to perfect the dance while cursing under her breath, barely audible due to the bass of the dubstep music. During the lift, I stared at her red dress and something clicked. I widened my eyes as I looked down at her feet again and saw the black heels. And by the end of the twirl, I raised my head to her face and saw the glittery thunderbolt that was painted on the forehead and her red lips.

"Nice moves, beautiful," I said and smiled. Her lips curved into a smile as she twirled and landed back into my arms.

"Thanks," she said, her voice finally sounding familiar, "it's not like I've been practicing or anything." I chuckled at her joke, remembering a few days ago I walked in Stevie attempting to walk in heels and proclaiming her devotion to combat boots over heels.

She let out her adorable giggled and kept dancing. Both of our eyes met.

"You look familiar. Do I know you from somewhere?" she asked.

"Maybe, maybe not. It's a small world, after all." I lifted her once more to the beat of the song. She twirl and landed in my arms once again, the warmth of her body colliding with mine.

"I know this might sound weird, but I have this feeling that we were fated to dance with each other," Stevie whispered into my ears. Her words caused my cheeks to heat up, but thankfully the lights wouldn't allow her to see that.

"It's not weird at all," I replied. "Maybe we were meant to meet here and dance tonight." I dipped her once more and pulled her in my arms.

We paused for a moment from that dip, my arms wrapped around her body, her arms on my chest. Our eyes connected and for a minute, I believed Stevie found out who I was.

"Are you sure we haven't met?"

Instead of answering, I inched my head forward in silence until our lips collided. I felt her soft lips touch mine and everything around me disappeared. The music and chatter, the sweat, the strong perfume and cologne mix, all of that disappeared and the only thing that felt like existed were Stevie and I.

Stevie didn't push away and run off like I had thought she would have; rather her lips pursued my lips in a battle of affection. I could feel her smile and pull away from the kiss, both of us still in a warm embrace. I let her go and ran my hand down her arm until our hands intertwined.

The dance had finished and all the students clapped for the dance team who started this all. I slipped my fingers out of her hand and politely joined in the clapping.

The DJ played another upbeat song and everyone returned to dancing. Stevie looked to me, displaying the brightest smile I've seen on her for a while. I couldn't help but smile back. I could feel my heart racing after the kiss, and her smile was the cherry on top that unmasked my undeniable feelings for her.

"Bye, Stevie," I said while grabbing her hand to kiss it. "Thanks for the dance." I turned around to walk off, but she reached for my hand, barely touching my fingers.

"Wait! Who are you?" Stevie asked. "How do you know my name?"

I turned around and smiled at her. "Because you're my Steviekins." I vanished in the swarm of people, leaving her with the hint of who I was.

I walked back to the stage, only seeing Kevin now. He greeted me and pointed towards Nelson dancing awkwardly with Grace.

"He finally did it, huh?" I asked.

Kevin nodded. "Yeah, during the Masquerade Magic."

Kevin looked a bit bummed out. "How about you, did anything else happen between you and Kacey?"

He shook his head and took a seat on the stage. He grabbed his punch and took a silent sip. "We danced the first part of the dance, but we got split up after and because there weren't enough girls, I ended up dancing with Andy and bailing." I laughed as I pulled off my mask and set it next to Kevin's mask.

Without a warning, Kacey stumbled to the stage and took a seat next to me. "I can't dance anymore! My feet are killing me from these heels!" She quickly undid the buckle to her heels and slipped them off to the side of the stage.

Kevin and Kacey engaged in a debate on how she ditched Kevin and had him dancing with Andy. At first I tuned in to the argument, but after they started repeating the same thing, I drifted into my memories of tonight.

Stevie was stunning in her red dress, and I wish I could've told her that in the little time we had. A smile slipped on my face remembering how she was stumbling over her feet while dancing. Stevie was never really good at dancing, especially in heels.

And the way she made me feel was completely different from everyone else. When her eyes landed on mine, I felt such a strong wave of jitters. When she held my hands, I can feel my palms starting to sweat and nervously stay entangled with hers.

 _Zander? Seriously Zander, two days in a row_. I turned over to Kevin and gave him a confused expression. "Dude, you keep blanking out in the middle of the conversation," Kevin said. Kacey stared into my eyes. Her eyes widened and she gasped. "What is it Kacey?"

"Dozing off in the middle of conversations, daydreaming, half paying attention. Zander has been bitten by the love bug," Kacey explained, satisfied that she's right. I rolled my eyes and shook my head, trying to deny to truth. "You lie too easy. You smiled when you heard the word 'love'."

 _What's the point in denying?_ I threw up my hands in surrender and said, "Fine, okay, you caught me."

Kacey continued to pry open the truth. "So who's the luck girl? Do we know her? Is she nice? Is she pretty?"

"Is she Stevie?" Kevin interrupted. I glared at Kevin for revealing the truth. Kacey stared at me in disbelief.

"You? Stevie? Really?" I nodded and turned my view towards the ground in embarrassment. Kacey continued to pester me about every little detail about our relationship. I knew she wanted to know more but I wasn't in the mood to give her the play by play of the moments I knew I was in love with my best friend.

"I think the real and most important question is, did Zander do his part of the bet?"

"What bet? What am I missing here?" Kevin went on to explaining to Kacey the bet. I jumped into the conversation when necessary to add my opinions. Kacey playfully threw her heels at Kevin when he admitted to being forced to take Kacey out to the dance.

Once Kacey was up to speed with what had happened with the bet, both Kevin and Kacey turned to me expectantly. They just kept _staring_ at me, and I couldn't help but cover my face and laugh it off.

"Fine, so here's what happened…" I explained everything to them, from my failed search for Stevie to the Masquerade Magic dance to the magical kiss we had at the end. Throughout the whole story, Kacey just squealed and repeated "OMG" at every moment. Kevin listened in obvious envy of my success.

Kacey stood up and faced me. "Please tell me you are going to tell Stevie. You _need_ to tell Stevie, like, now!"

"What? I can't tell her! Please don't tell her!" I practically dropped to my knees to beg her to keep quiet. She reluctantly agreed and huffed back to her seat.

"You know she's going to want to know, right?"

"I know, but just this once, she can't know yet."


	3. Masquerade: Part 3

**A/N: Thank you to the very few reading! I hope you guys enjoy the last part :) More one shots to come soon.**

 **Masquerade (Part 3)**

At long last, the dance ended, but the story continued with more anticipation for the next step. After the dance, all I could think about was the missed chance at letting Stevie know my feelings. I replayed the same memory of dancing with her and kissing her, wishing I had just said who I was, or given her an easier hint…and yet I still didn't want her to know.

It was, however, getting harder to think that way when for the past day, that moment was all Stevie can talk about. She explained everything to Kacey after the dance, and even though Kacey was tortured by knowing what _really_ was going down, she kept her promise and didn't say anything.

Kacey took out all her frustrations on me. Every moment she saw me, she would jab at me, pressuring me to tell Stevie. She threw empty threats my way, hoping it would convince me to proclaim my feelings of love towards her best friend, but I just shrugged her off and pretended to not be bothered by it.

Once we came in for band rehearsals, Stevie was completely checked out. She constantly missed her cue and drove the entire band up the wall with vague excuses. Kevin banged his head against his drums while Nelson and Kacey exchanged glances. Everyone was getting irritated to the point where we stopped practice after another slip up.

Kacey went to give Stevie a talk while Kevin and Nelson ganged up on me. "Zander, you need to tell her," Kevin said. "She needs to focus!"

"Yeah, Zander," Nelson agreed. "We have a gig on Friday. We can't screw this up."

"Is there another way out?"

"No," they both answered. They grabbed my arms and forcibly pulled me towards Stevie and Kacey. I could feel the feelings and nervousness I've been suppressing resurge to the surface.

"Stevie, Zander needs to talk to you. It's too urgent!" Kevin said. Kacey raised her eyebrow and I responded by giving her a grim nod.

"Okay guys, we need to give them space. This could be life or death here! Let's go, we can get something while we're out." Kacey led Nelson and Kevin out of the band room, leaving Stevie and I to our own devices.

I took a seat on the coach and patted the seat, indicating for Stevie to sit next to me. She sat down and began fumbling with her thumbs. For a moment, I was enticed by her appearance. Even when she was just wearing a band tee, ripped jeans, combat boots, and a beanie, she looked so damn hot.

"So Stevie," I began, at first a little too loudly, "What's up today? You've been messing up so much. We have a gig soon, you know."

"I know, but something's been on my mind since last night."

"What happened last night?"

"I don't know if I should be telling you this."

I looked at her and said, "You can tell me anything."

Stevie squirmed uncomfortably as she began, "Well, during the Masquerade Magic, I danced with this guy. He was an amazing dancer, and he didn't mind me messing up in my heels." She smiled at the thought of the guy. "And we kept dancing and it felt magical. Everything felt perfect and just when I thought it couldn't get any better than this, he kissed me." She paused, taking in the memory the same way I had.

He knew my name, but I didn't know his. I tried to ask him for his name, but he dismissed me. I wish I knew who he was so I wouldn't have to feel like this all day." Stevie groaned and leaned her head against mine. "I had this little notion that it might be someone like…" Stevie drifted off, leaving a gap of silence to fill. I wonder if she could hear my heart pounding against my chest.

"Someone like?"

"You."

I let it sink in. I didn't know how to answer, or if I should answer, but I tried anyways.

"Actually Stevie…"

"I know, I know it's stupid. You can't possibly-"

Call it an impulse action, but I had no control over what I decided to do. My lips crashed onto hers. I caught her by surprise again, but she didn't seem the least bit bothered by the spontaneous act. She threw her hands around my neck and pulled me in closer. She leaned back and landed on the coach with me in trailing.

Our lips never parted as I got on top of her. I can feel her hands running through my curly hair and landing right back on my neck. My hands travelled from her hands to her hair, and I began twirling her beautiful, soft wavy hair.

I wanted to pause time to this moment and never let it pass by into anew. I've waited for this moment ever since I realized I was in love with her a year ago, when she was the chick who wanted to start a band with Kevin, Nelson, and I. I never stopped loving her even as Kacey joined the band, even when Stevie changed her looks every once in a while, even when Stevie went on a date with other guys, even when I went on dates with other girls.

I wanted to keep replaying this over and over and savor what I had of it, and surely I would in my mind, but alas at the same time, we slowly pulled away, letting our lips touch each other's for a little longer. I could feel her deep breathes, her chest moving up and down to the rhythm of her heart. She reached over and gently touched my cheek.

I smiled, feeling her warm radiance on me. "Do you believe it now, Steviekins?"


End file.
